We just had Scholastic's bookfair at school and there is a new Jan Brett book, The Three Snow Bears which is an Inuit version of Goldilocks and the 3 Bears. My bookshelf is bursting with all the books I brought home this summer, but of course there is always room for one more (well, 2 - I had to have "Knut" which is a true story of a polar bear cub).
My school district has booked Teri Sloat for a visit in early March - actually during the race!!!(author of Berry Magic, an Inuit tale of how the berries came to be in Alaska - and the book I used to motivate the students for our reading challenge last year - with the principal eating the agutaq - Eskimo ice cream - recipe is in the book - when they met the challenge. I'm so excited - Teri spent time living in the villages of Alaska and has written several books. I think she will even be staying with me for one night. The connections we make.....how incredible!
If I didn't send you the bibliography I put together, let me know and I'll get it to you. Have a great holiday season. Debbie
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Happy Thanksgiving
First let me start by wishing everyone who view are blog a very blessed Thanksgiving.
I hope each enjoy their time with family and friends..
Now the other reason I am posting is I found a great website (my kids did) while researching the Iditarod for a class project. It is http://www.ultimateiditarod.com/ . There are all kinds of things on this website that can be helpful to those of us who are beginning to introduce the Iditarod in our classes. So having completed task 2 I am again wishing you a blessed Thanksgiving from Tennessee.
I hope each enjoy their time with family and friends..
Now the other reason I am posting is I found a great website (my kids did) while researching the Iditarod for a class project. It is http://www.ultimateiditarod.com/ . There are all kinds of things on this website that can be helpful to those of us who are beginning to introduce the Iditarod in our classes. So having completed task 2 I am again wishing you a blessed Thanksgiving from Tennessee.
Monday, October 29, 2007
Rookie Project Rolling Along!
Hi Fellow Iditanuts,
I hope this finds everyone well!
I wanted to share some exciting events in my classroom. My rookie musher is Ken Kaltenbacher from Knik, Alaska. Kent is a retired teacher who has been very generous with his time and resources.
I have been in contact with Kent via telephone calls and emails. He and his wife Susie are featured on my class website. On October 5th, my math students got to ask Kent math questions via a conference call. I set it up ahead of time, it was a surprise for the students. I challenged them to think of questions they would ask Kent and then they had to be more specific and come up with a second question that would have a math answer. I went on with the lesson after they had their questions written down. Ten minutes later, the phone rang and it was Kent! They were so excited! Each student got to ask Kent his or her math question. We made a musher math poster with all of their questions and Kent's answers on it. It was a great day!
Last Thursday, October 24th, my homeroom class received a box with dog harnesses and booties from Knik, one for each student. The kids were so pumped! Kent has challenged the students to write a report about everything they have learned about Alaska after the race is over. If every student writes a report he has promised them a surprise! I'm hoping he is not going to send 19 dogs to Nebraska! He is going to downsize his kennel after the race! Oh no, this could be bad Ha! Ha!
Kent has shared his knowledge about the Native American culture, Alaska, and the Iditarod. His willingness to connect with my students has brought the great state of Alaska to my eager little landlocked, Nebraska students. Connecting with students and kids never truly leave an educator's heart. His Alaskan hospitality reminded me of the summer of conference. We had the best of the best, people who were willing to share their knowledge of Alaska, their adventures and their love of the Iditarod. It was a great experience that I will never forget.
Thank you Diane Johnson and the Iditarod Trail Committee for providing this wonderful rookie learning opportunity for students and teachers!
Have a great week!
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Quilts, rookie reports, and "large"times
Hi, all--
I can't draw worth a lick (Tee will understand that phrase), so I was really worried about making my quilt square for our school's quilts. My sister, a teacher elsewhere in NC, told me about quilt squares that will go through the computer printer. It's sold in the quilting department of craft/fabric stores, and has a peel-off paper backing. I printed wordart, photographs, an outline map, and text on my square.
Last week my 6th graders were working with 3rd and 1st person point of view and needed more practice changing 3rd person to 1st person. I thought of my rookie report on Rohn Buser. Kids got copies of it, were interested in it, I popped it up on the screen via projector to my computer, used the Track Changes tool to edit it as they told me the changes to make Rohn the narrator of his report. (Make the font larger so they can easily see it.) I printed wallet size color photos of the pic I had taken of Rohn and his dad, and each student got one to keep. They noticed Martin's finger, so I had them predict why part of it was missing, asked them what clues and prior knowledge they used to make the prediction, told them the story of the accident, and then we talked about revising predictions.
Tee and everyone--last Friday night I was at our high school football game, our town's main entertainment, and a friend asked me if my college sophomore daughter was having at large time at NC State. Thought of you, Tee! And yes, she is having a large time! Go, Wolfpack!
Martha
I can't draw worth a lick (Tee will understand that phrase), so I was really worried about making my quilt square for our school's quilts. My sister, a teacher elsewhere in NC, told me about quilt squares that will go through the computer printer. It's sold in the quilting department of craft/fabric stores, and has a peel-off paper backing. I printed wordart, photographs, an outline map, and text on my square.
Last week my 6th graders were working with 3rd and 1st person point of view and needed more practice changing 3rd person to 1st person. I thought of my rookie report on Rohn Buser. Kids got copies of it, were interested in it, I popped it up on the screen via projector to my computer, used the Track Changes tool to edit it as they told me the changes to make Rohn the narrator of his report. (Make the font larger so they can easily see it.) I printed wallet size color photos of the pic I had taken of Rohn and his dad, and each student got one to keep. They noticed Martin's finger, so I had them predict why part of it was missing, asked them what clues and prior knowledge they used to make the prediction, told them the story of the accident, and then we talked about revising predictions.
Tee and everyone--last Friday night I was at our high school football game, our town's main entertainment, and a friend asked me if my college sophomore daughter was having at large time at NC State. Thought of you, Tee! And yes, she is having a large time! Go, Wolfpack!
Martha
Friday, September 21, 2007
Read-a-thon
Hi, to all my summer conference friends! The school year has gotten off to a good start for Crickett and myself, except that, even though her room is only 4 doors away, and the teacher's lounge is across the hall - I almost never see her during the day! Crazy busy!
I have had to decide to scale back some of my overly ambitious plans for the year. I've had some heavy-duty family responsibilities come up, so the quilt and dolls for the Susan Butcher Family Center have been pushed to the back burner. I have come up with another idea, however, and I'm hoping that maybe some of you will want to join me in this worthy cause.
I am hoping to organize a read-a-thon during the Iditarod. The plan is that students collect pledges for every minute or page (haven't decided yet) they read during the race. The money collected would be donated to the center. I have heard from Shelley Gill (through a friend of hers) that the center is needing cash donations. One of the elementary schools in our district did a read-a-thon last year just to raise funds for their bookroom and they made $10,000. That's pretty powerful cash for an elementary school. I don't know that our school would be that successful, but I would hope that we could raise some decent money. I will be putting together pledge kits with information about the family center and the race. I will be happy to share anything I put together. I think it is so important to teach our kids to be giving and I think the kids will be motivated by the race and the cause.
If you have ideas about how this might work or any other ideas to help out the center, please e-mail me or post here. I'll post more info as it becomes available.
Hope your year is going well - we're almost at midquarter - can't believe it. My kids have almost finished their quilt squares for Jane's project. They are so excited to have that connection with Alaska (their eyes get so big when they talk about Alaska!).
I have had to decide to scale back some of my overly ambitious plans for the year. I've had some heavy-duty family responsibilities come up, so the quilt and dolls for the Susan Butcher Family Center have been pushed to the back burner. I have come up with another idea, however, and I'm hoping that maybe some of you will want to join me in this worthy cause.
I am hoping to organize a read-a-thon during the Iditarod. The plan is that students collect pledges for every minute or page (haven't decided yet) they read during the race. The money collected would be donated to the center. I have heard from Shelley Gill (through a friend of hers) that the center is needing cash donations. One of the elementary schools in our district did a read-a-thon last year just to raise funds for their bookroom and they made $10,000. That's pretty powerful cash for an elementary school. I don't know that our school would be that successful, but I would hope that we could raise some decent money. I will be putting together pledge kits with information about the family center and the race. I will be happy to share anything I put together. I think it is so important to teach our kids to be giving and I think the kids will be motivated by the race and the cause.
If you have ideas about how this might work or any other ideas to help out the center, please e-mail me or post here. I'll post more info as it becomes available.
Hope your year is going well - we're almost at midquarter - can't believe it. My kids have almost finished their quilt squares for Jane's project. They are so excited to have that connection with Alaska (their eyes get so big when they talk about Alaska!).
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Into the Wild
Hey Iditarod Friends,
Have any of you read the book Into the Wild? It is coming out as a movie in the next week or so or maybe the weekend. I think it is going to be awesome as it is about a young man who dropped everthing to go to Alaska by way of foot. He made it and nearly survived but died. I hope you can catch the movie I am or read the true story.
Hope all is well with everyone.
Tee
Have any of you read the book Into the Wild? It is coming out as a movie in the next week or so or maybe the weekend. I think it is going to be awesome as it is about a young man who dropped everthing to go to Alaska by way of foot. He made it and nearly survived but died. I hope you can catch the movie I am or read the true story.
Hope all is well with everyone.
Tee
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Spelling Words
Hello everyone,
I'm sharing a list of spelling words I brainstormed for my colleagues at school to use this year. It certainly isn't comprehensive, but it's a start. The way they'll fit into my spelling program is I will use them as examples of words that use certain spelling patterns.
Is everyone having a good year? Quilt contact information will be coming soon. Go ahead and get started on those squares!
Jane
Alaska, Iditarod, musher, husky, huskies, checkpoint, checker, volunteer, veterinarian, bootie, hypothermia, , rookie, veteran, Anchorage, Nome, start, finish, champion, sled, frostbite, Arctic, temperature, headquarters, village, native, moose, caribou, musk ox, seal, polar, microchip, entry, handler, bib, spectator, coast, interior, gulf, sound (water body), bay, Denali, Athabaskan, (people group), Aleutian (people group), nupiat (people group), Tlingit (people group), Haida (people group)
I'm sharing a list of spelling words I brainstormed for my colleagues at school to use this year. It certainly isn't comprehensive, but it's a start. The way they'll fit into my spelling program is I will use them as examples of words that use certain spelling patterns.
Is everyone having a good year? Quilt contact information will be coming soon. Go ahead and get started on those squares!
Jane
Alaska, Iditarod, musher, husky, huskies, checkpoint, checker, volunteer, veterinarian, bootie, hypothermia, , rookie, veteran, Anchorage, Nome, start, finish, champion, sled, frostbite, Arctic, temperature, headquarters, village, native, moose, caribou, musk ox, seal, polar, microchip, entry, handler, bib, spectator, coast, interior, gulf, sound (water body), bay, Denali, Athabaskan, (people group), Aleutian (people group), nupiat (people group), Tlingit (people group), Haida (people group)
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